Oliver and I
by Ilovepi
Summary: I, Katie Bell, am narrating the part of my life involving Oliver. Take it or leave it, but here it is.
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: I am not Katie Bell. I am not JK Rowling. I only pretend to be Katie Bell, and aspire to be as rich as JK Rowling.**

I had RSVPed to Angelina's party before I had even gotten the invitation. It promised to be great…after all, what could be bad about it? A no-teachers wonderful party hosted by Angelina's parents (her dad runs a magical party company and her mom is a caterer) with all my friends? Of course, when Angie's list reached over thirty, her parents decided to make it more of an event than a party, which of course meant that we had to pay, but one Galleon isn't all that much for an awesome party like that…

Then, naturally, since Angie didn't have to worry about money, she figured she might as well invite her whole year and call it a graduation party…which was how Dominica Vane got invited.

Being friends with Angie, I was on the list of the original thirty, but not many people in my year were. I wasn't worried though, because Angelina had told me that Oliver Wood had promised to come.

I hadn't seen Oliver in months. WAY too long…in fact, I don't think I had seen him since we ran into each other at Diagon Alley the week before school started, which was weird, because he was interning with the Quidditch teem my dad manages, but Dad does have a policy of not bringing work home, so Oliver was wherever he was and I missed him.

We had, of course, kept in contact. But not much contact. A few "I miss you"s and "what's going on in your life"s...and he didn't always reply. I'm sure he was having a much more interesting year than me, after all. The only time he actually initiated anything with me was when he found out that I was going out with Ethan. Funny letter, that one. I recall that it mostly consisted of him wondering what the expletive was wrong with me and how could I do this without expletive consulting him first.

The party was actually pretty nice, although I didn't really know that many people. I did know Dominica Vane…but knowing and liking are two heartily different things.

We had bonded briefly at some sleepover one of my friends was having the weekend after I had broken up with Ethan. This was only when, while playing Truth or Dare and Dominica had been asked who she most wanted to have sex with and her answer was Oliver Wood, we began talking about said Oliver.

It didn't take me very long to realize that her interest in him was skin deep. She was highly attracted to his extremely attractive body. I knew him as a person and protested hotly to the idea of treating Oliver like a stud. This defense of him gave her the idea that I liked him, which of course was entirely false.

Anyway, she pounced on me shortly after I entered the party, and began talking to me at high speed about how Oliver was here, and he loved her, and he was going to be hers, too bad for me, and (squeal) wasn't Angie's dress adorable?

I blinked and nodded, detaching myself and attempting to lose her in the crowd. My next goal was to locate Oliver, and warn him if I could of this impending threat. And perhaps to see how much of a threat he considered it.

I found him hanging with a couple of kids in his grade…I sort of knew them. One's name was Lily; I knew that—she was friends with my brother. There was a girl sitting on the lap of a guy whose name started with an 'M'. I doubt they were even aware of the rest of us.

Oliver jerked his head in a 'come over here' manner. I came. He gestured for me to sit. I sat.

"Hey," I said.

"Hey," everyone responded.

"Dominica Vane was looking for you," I informed Oliver.

He grimaced. I laughed. Mission accomplished.

He and his friends continued talking about nothing in particular. I sat and listened. That was when some random tall guy came up and said hi to me. Our conversation went kinda like this:

Him: Hi, Katie.

Me: Um…I'm sorry, do I know you?

Him: Yeah, we met at…uh…Don't you remember me? I'm Saul.

Me: Er…sorry. Hi, Saul.

Him: You know, this is a dance.

Me: Yeah.

Him: We should dance.

Me: Er…okay.

[We go towards the dance floor. I glance back at the group I had left. Oliver is looking at us curiously.]

It didn't take me very long to decide that I was not Saul's biggest fan. Or his smallest fan. Or any fan of his at all, really. His idea of dancing was kind of strange…Instead of my hands on his shoulders and his on my waist like a normal dance, his hands were against mine like some permanent high five…or really high ten….while he moved his hips a bit and inched closer and closer to me. Of course, the usual position for hands wouldn't have worked…Have I mentioned that he was about a foot taller than me? Well, he was about a foot taller than me.

I was trying to come up with a polite way to disengage when Angelina tapped me on my shoulder. "Sorry, can I borrow Katie for a moment?" she asked Saul.

Naturally, I was more than happy to leave Saul there and turned to see what Angie wanted.

"I just want to warn you that Saul is a bit of a creep," she told me.

"Yeah, I was kinda figuring that out," I said.

"Just looking out for you." She grinned. "You can do better than him, anyway."

I smiled. Someone came up and started talking to Angie, so I walked off, keeping an eye out for Saul.

I returned to the corner Oliver and company had been sitting at. Someone else had joined the group who I knew—a girl named Samantha who lived pretty close to my house.

"Done dancing?" Oliver asked.

I shrugged. "It's very crowded…and I didn't have anyone in particular I wanted to dance with."

"I don't like dancing," he said.

"Oh," I replied intelligently.

"Who was that guy?"

"No clue, but he was creepy," I said with conviction. He grinned. I noticed that he has really nice teeth.

We continued talking. Suddenly he glanced at something over my shoulder and looked quickly away. "Well, that's awkward," he said.

Curious, I looked. The two previously closely entwined couple had begun entwining tongues.

"Shall we walk elsewhere?" I suggested.

"Certainly," he replied with a smile. We found a quiet(er) alcove and sat down to talk. He put his arm around my shoulder and I rested my head against his.

"Tell me about Ethan," he said abruptly.

I swallowed. "He's a muggleborn…so he was always really curious about my magical life and jealous of me even…very smart guy…"

"Why did you break up?" he asked.

I tried not to look him in those deep blue eyes. "He was too…on top of me all the time," I said finally. "Towards the end, he was really paranoid that I was going to dump him and if I was like three minutes late to lunch he would come looking for me…and he was so all over me that I was smothered…so I broke up with him." I chose not to mention the week of detentions I had gotten because of Ethan trying to kiss me outside Umbridge's office.

"Ah," Oliver said. He looked at me and brushed a hair back from my face. "I miss you out in the big world," he said.

"I miss you too," I admitted. "School is pretty awful these days. You know about Umbridge?"

He nodded. "I've seen the Prophet, but it seems heartily in favor of her."

I snorted. "She's horrendous. I wouldn't have been able to survive if it weren't for—" I stopped abruptly, remembering the pimples on what's-her-name-the-sneak's-face. Mentioning Dumbledore's Army, even to Oliver, would probably be pretty stupid.

"For what?" he asked.

I shrugged. "Quidditch, though that's been lousy since Fred, George and Harry were kicked off. School in general has gone downhill since the twins disappeared. Do they actually have a store in Diagon Alley?"

Oliver nodded, his eyes sparkling. "It's utterly brilliant," he said. "They have everything."

I shook my head, laughing. "I never thought they would pull it off," I said honestly.

"Pull what off?"

"Yeah, pull what off?"

I looked up. Fred and George were standing looking down at us.

"Well, speak of the devil…" Oliver said.

"Who are you calling the devil?" Fred and George said together with identical expressions of hurt.

"You two, of course," I replied, standing up to hug them. "I've missed you."

Oliver stood up too and the twins turned to him. "What's up with you and this one?" Fred (I think) asked, gesturing in my direction.

"Has she finally admitted she likes you?" George (unless it was Fred) added.

To my utter surprise, Oliver actually blushed almost as much as I did.

"Uh…" he said intelligently.

That was a possibility I hadn't considered. Did he actually like…me?

The twins exchanged equally exasperated glances. "We'll have to leave them here to figure it out," George said.

"Too true," Fred agreed, shaking his head at us. They turned and marched away.

I looked at Oliver, who looked at the floor. "You like me?" I said incredulously.

"I…uh…" he began. "I know I'm a lot older than you…it really wouldn't work out between us. I mean, you're still at school, and I'm working for your _dad_ for Christ's sake…"

I blinked at him.

"…It's not that I don't like you, because I do, but I really can't get involved with you, and I know it sucks to be in your position because I've been in it too many times and I'm really sorry…"

"Oliver," I said.

He stopped rambling. "Yeah?"

"I get it. Shut up, okay?"

He stared at me, opening and closing his mouth like a fish.

"See you around," I said, managing a half smile before turning and losing myself in the crowd.

_**To be continued…**_

_A/N: I have been working on this story literally since Thanksgiving and only now have managed this, so don't kill me if I don't update for a while. On the other hand, if I know you like it, I'll be encouraged to write more, faster. So please, please review._


	2. Chapter 2

_Nope, still not mine. Sorry for the delay, I'm lousy at updating…_

I met up with a couple other kids I sort-of knew and we sat in a corner and hung out for most of the rest of the dance. Every once in a while, a song one of us particularly liked came on and we'd go and dance, but mostly we just sat and talked. There were four of us: me, an Asian girl named Anne, a short redhead called Robyn and a tall, gangly girl who introduced herself as Boris.

"Boris?" I asked.

"It's a long story," she said.

"Her real name is—" Robyn began before Boris interrupted her with,

"—So awfully horrendous that _anything _is preferable and _anything _happened to be Boris," she finished.

"If you say so," Anne said.

It turned out that the four of us knew a lot of the same people. Anne was the only one who also went to Hogwarts, but somehow the only class we'd ever been in together was History of Magic. Robyn and Boris went to a very small, very expensive private school that I had never heard proof of its existence before, just rumors.

"So how do you guys know Angelina?" I asked.

"Quidditch camp," they said at the time.

"Sweet!" Anne exclaimed.

"Angie told me about that," I commented. "I was _so_ jealous, I promptly forgot about it."

They laughed. "You?" Boris asked.

"We're on the same Quidditch team," I said proudly.

"God, I'm jealous now," Robyn said.

We spent most of the rest of the night discussing Quidditch. Anne, it turned out, was a reserve Chaser for the Ravenclaws. Boris was a Keeper and Robyn was a Seeker.

I grinned. "We have the best Seeker." My smile vanished. "Had," I corrected. "He got banned. But he _was_ the best Seeker."

They looked dubious. "Ask Anne," I suggested. "She's not even on our team."

They looked at Anne. She shrugged. "Cho isn't half bad, but I've got to admit that Harry is pretty good."

"Pretty good?" I exclaimed. "You're telling me that catching a Snitch in five minutes flat is 'pretty good'?!?"

"You have a Seeker who did _that?" _Boris said incredulously.

"That was once!" Anne protested.

"I bet you know who he is," I told the other two.

"We do?"

"Ever heard of Harry Potter?"

They blinked and burst into questions.

That was when I stiffened and lost track of the conversation as I spotted something across the room. Oliver was leaning on a wall snogging Dominica Vane.

"Katie? Earth to Katie?" Boris was saying, waving her hands in front of my eyes. "You still with us?" she asked. "You totally zoned out for a sec there." She looked at me closer. "Geez, Kate, you alright? You're ridiculously pale…"

I blinked. "Uh, yeah…I'm fine…excuse me for a minute…" I got up and walked towards the door. Three pairs of eyes followed my progress and a fourth pair, a beautiful blue pair, locked eyes with me. I jerked my head away and continued through the crowd towards the door.

"Katie!"

I ignored him.

"Katie, please…"

I continued walking.

"Katie, stop!" He grabbed my arm. I flinched and pulled away. "It's not what you think," he said.

"I don't care."

"She pushed me against a wall and stuck her tongue in my mouth, okay?" he said fiercely.

I blinked, but kept walking. He hurried to keep up. "I can't stand her, Katie, she's a little slut and she won't take no as an answer." He went on like this for a while.

I opened the door. Cold night air hit me. I glanced up at the stars. They were still there.

"You're leaving?" he said, startled.

"Where did you think I was going?" Idiot boy.

"I don't know…How are you getting home?"

I shrugged. "The Knight Bus." I was determined not to look at him.

He made a face. "May I apparate you home?" he asked.

I was about to refuse when I remembered my last journey on the Knight bus. "Okay," I said ungraciously.

He followed me outside and held my arm. Oliver radiates heat. I could feel his warmth even through my jacket. We turned and a second later, we were in a small park about ten minutes from my house. I raised my eyebrows at him.

"I guess I overshot it a bit…"

Suddenly I remembered how Oliver knew where my house was. I had had a small gathering of the Quidditch team the summer before my third year. Fred and George were having a small war with Angelina and Alicia, so Oliver and I had escaped and taken a walk. We had spent a beautiful hour talking in this park, back when the apple trees were all in bloom. Harry, curiously, had never replied to his invitation.

"I'll walk you home from here," Oliver offered.

"Okay." I was not feeling very gracious towards him at the moment. My thoughts were more or less 'He could have had me, and he chose _her!' _Perhaps it was true that he had been lip-raped against a wall, but he should have been smart enough not to go near a wall with that little…my mind abruptly ran out of adjectives to describe Dominica Vane.

We started walking towards my house. He put his arm around me as though it were a given. I had a momentary debate about it in my head, but heck, it was cold, so I returned the gesture. Oliver was still going on about how this wasn't a 'her verse me' thing and clearly he would choose me because she was such a bitch…

"But you didn't."

He stopped, swallowed and said, "I'm sorry, Katie." He continued on about other girls he had to say no to and girls who had said no to him and how sorry he was to put me in this position. Frankly, I was paying very little attention to him and waiting for the moment when I could just curl up in bed and cry. Then maybe I could get over him. I'd been crazy about him for too long, I told myself. I'd even liked him a bit when I was with Ethan.

We reached my house. Oliver looked at me for a moment and pulled me into a hug. We just stood like that, holding each other, for what felt like eternity. Then he lifted his head up to look at me and I looked at him and our lips met and it was heaven. Too soon, he pulled away.

"Good night," he said, squeezing my hand.

"Night, Oliver," I managed and he smiled and turned and disappeared.

As it turned out, I didn't cry myself to sleep that night.

_Okay, how was that? Please let me know!_


End file.
